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will say, "A good son means: do whatsoever your father says." It is not that simple -- because you can do it from the outside and you can resist it from the inside. That's what children have to do! They are helpless. Whatsoever the parents say, they HAVE to do it, willingly, unwillingly, reluctantly -- they have to do it. That creates a split in them. They become two. They start becoming false, phony.
So one way that is ordinarily thought: just be obedient to the father and you are a good son. That is not the meaning of Pythagoras. Then does he mean rebel against the father? Go against him? Do just the opposite of whatsoever he says? Be a hippie or yippie or something? If he says have short hair then have long hair? If he says, "Take a bath every day," then forget all about taking a bath for years? If he says, "Cleanliness is next to God," then be dirty and claim that dirtiness is next to God? No, that is not the meaning of being a good son either.
In fact, the second thing has happened in the world because the first has persisted too long. Too much enforced obedience has created a reaction. Then who is a good son?
A good son is one who is alert, understanding, respectful; who listens to the father because the father knows much -- he has lived, he has experienced life, he has more experience. He listens to the father. He tries to understand the father. He is open. He is not in a hurry either to obey or to disobey.
A good son is one who is ready to listen, to understand, to learn. And then if you feel that you agree with the father, do it. If you feel you don't agree with the father, then say it. There is no question of reaction. Just make it plain that you don't agree. You will do it, but it will be done with forced effort. It will make you phony. If the father wants, you will do it, but it will make you phony, it will make you split, schizophrenic. It will divide you.
A good communion is needed between the father and the son, because the father represents the past and the son represents the future. A bridge is needed. And it cannot be one-sided, so it is not only for the son to be a good son: the final thing is to be a good father
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